This invention relates in general to vehicle wheels and in particular to an apparatus for conditioning an outer flange of such a vehicle wheel.
A conventional fabricated vehicle wheel is typically of a two-piece construction and includes an inner disc and an outer xe2x80x9cfullxe2x80x9d rim. The disc can be cast, forged, or fabricated from steel, aluminum, or other alloys, and includes an inner annular wheel mounting portion and an outer annular portion. The wheel mounting portion defines an inboard mounting surface and includes a center pilot or hub hole, and a plurality of lug receiving holes formed therethrough for mounting the wheel to an axle of the vehicle. The rim is fabricated from steel, aluminum, or other alloys, and includes an inboard tire bead seat retaining flange, an inboard tire bead seat, an axially extending well, an outboard tire bead seat, and an outboard tire bead seat retaining flange. In some instances, a three-piece wheel construction having a mounting cup secured to the disc is used. In both types of constructions, the outer annular portion of the disc is secured to the rim by welding.
A full face fabricated wheel is distinguished from other types of fabricated wheels by having a one-piece wheel disc construction. In particular, the full face wheel includes a xe2x80x9cfull facexe2x80x9d disc and a xe2x80x9cpartialxe2x80x9d rim. The full face disc can be formed cast, forged, or fabricated from steel, aluminum, or other alloys. The full face disc includes an inner annular wheel mounting portion and an outer annular portion which defines at least a portion of an outboard tire bead seat retaining flange of the wheel. The wheel mounting portion defines an inboard mounting surface and includes a center pilot or hub hole, and a plurality of lug receiving holes formed therethrough for mounting the wheel to an axle of the vehicle. The partial rim is fabricated from steel, aluminum, or other alloys, and includes an inboard tire bead seat retaining flange, an inboard tire bead seat, an axially extending well, and an outboard tire bead seat. In some instances, the outboard tire bead seat of the rim and the outer annular portion of the disc cooperate to form the outboard tire bead seat retaining flange of the full face wheel. In both types of constructions, the outboard tire bead seat of the rim is positioned adjacent the outer annular portion of the disc and a weld is applied to secure the rim and the disc together.
Sometimes the edge of the inboard tire bead seat retaining flange and/or the edge of the outboard tire bead seat retaining flange can have sharp edges along portions thereof. In order to remove the sharp edges, it is known to hand buff the inboard and outboard tire bead seat retaining flanges with an appropriate tool, such as a hand grinder or sander. However, the hand buffing operation is time consuming and expensive to perform. Also, there is tooling that is used to remove the sharp edges. The tooling includes small diameter tool steel rolls which are hydraulically actuated. While the tooling is faster than the hand buffing, it has not met customer requirements. Thus, it would be desirable to have an apparatus which was effective to remove any sharp edges from the inboard and outboard tire bead seat retaining flanges of the wheel rim which was reliable, fast and relatively inexpensive.
This invention relates to an apparatus and method for conditioning the outer flanges of a vehicle wheel. The apparatus includes a main base assembly secured to a fixed surface, a lower tool assembly operatively supported by the main base assembly, at least one upper drive assembly operatively supported by the main base assembly, and an upper rim guide assembly. The upper drive assembly includes an electric servo drive unit operatively connected to drive a conditioner roll having an outer surface provided with a predetermined profile adapted to engage and condition at least one of the outer flanges of the vehicle wheel. The use of the electric servo drive units of the present invention are operative to give precise control, enable varying speeds, and provide for repeatability and will operate with variance related to the incoming parts (i.e., varied widths and thicknesses).
Other advantages of this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment, when read in light of the accompanying drawings.